Innovator Stories: The Energy Catalyst Accelerator
Overview
Through financial and advisory support, and by building strategic partnerships and uncovering new insights, Energy Catalyst supports the development of technologies and business models that can improve lives in Africa, Asia and Indo-Pacific regions. Energy Catalyst is an Innovate UK programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) under the Ayrton Fund, part of the UK’s International Climate Finance commitment. FCDO funding is part of the scale-up of the FCDO’s Transforming Energy Access platform announced at COP26 in Glasgow.
The Challenge
Despite significant progress in recent years, particularly on access to electricity, we are not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) to deliver universal access to energy by 2030. Without sustained efforts, some 660 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, will still be left without access to electricity in 2030 and 1.9 billion people will remain without access to clean cooking. This affects all development goals, not just SDG7 as poor access to energy jeopardises healthcare and education provisions, quality of life, gender equity, livelihoods, and much more.
Energy Catalyst addresses this challenge by:
Acting as a springboard for innovators to de-risk, accelerate and demonstrate their clean energy solutions
Building partnerships across the energy access ecosystem to maximise the potential for commercialising new technologies and business models
Supporting innovators to create new economic opportunities and improve lives in Africa and Asia
Embedding and promoting the principles of gender equality and social inclusion to enhance commercial sustainability and maximise societal impact
Straw Innovations: Enhanced Rice Straw Biogas
Eigen has provided long term mentoring and coaching plus peer-peer ‘Scaleup’ and business planning workshops. Specific Eigen tasks advised on corporate and capital structuring and the investor term sheet. Eigen coordinated market analysis & launch support, financial model review and techno-economic analysis.
“My Acceleration Manager from Eigen Ventures has a rare and valuable mix of experience across all the areas of my work. Each interaction was fun and informative, helping me to think through strategic decisions and supporting me through the ups and downs along the way.”
Pilio: Sustainability Insetting
In addition to long term mentoring and coaching, Eigen delivered specific support behind investment transactions and partnership negotiations. Eigen also shaped and coordinated support behind financial modelling, pitch deck development, market analysis and partner identification.